Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Franco Morbidelli added to his championship score with 12th place. A difficult day saw Tom Luthi finish 22nd.

The 13th round of the MotoGP World Championship was held in ideal summer conditions at a sunny and warm World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

Franco Morbidelli maintained this focus on a top ten bid after being 14th in the warm-up and was settled in ninth place after four laps on the tight 4.2 km circuit. Before a capacity attendance at his home track Morbidelli fought close battles with Andrea Iannone and Alvaro Bautista before making sure of a 12th place points finish.

Tom Luthi was placed 25th in the warm-up and knew he a faced long, hot day in the 27 lap race. From 23rd on the grid Luthi quickly realised a pre-race set-up change did not solve his turning issues. By lap eight he had moved forward to 22nd where he finished after a challenging weekend at Misano.

The next race for the MotoGP World Championship will be held on September 23: the Aragon Grand Prix at Motorland Aragon.

Franco Morbidelli: 12th, +32.941
“This 12th position means some good points at my home race. I risked a lot to stay in the top ten and pushed a lot on in the braking. But after a few laps I had some problems and had to drop my pace because I could not brake as usual and I was also losing time in acceleration.”

Tom Luthi: 22nd, +1’12.608
“The race was a disaster for me. I was struggling with turning all weekend and we had no choice but to try a big set-up change for the race after the warm-up, but it didn’t work as expected. It was not easy to finish the race, I had no chance to push. Now we must look forward to the next race in Aragon and try to find more confidence on the bike.”